Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney visited Good Shepherd Parish in Andover on Sunday, May 1, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, where he celebrated the noon Mass and administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to 30 young people of the parish.

The faith communities of Our Lady of Fatima (OLF) Parish and St. Nicholas Parish, at the vigil Mass April 30 for the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, welcomed Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney to Our Lady of Fatima Church in Paterson where he celebrated a 5:30 p.m. Mass and administered the Sacrament of Confirma­tion to young people of both parishes.

Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney made a pastoral visit to St. Vincent Martyr Parish in Madison on Sunday, May 1, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, where he celebrated an outdoor closing Mass for the parish youth ministry at 5 p.m. Concelebrating the Mass with the Bishop were Msgr. George Hundt, St. Vincent’s pastor; Father Krzysztof Liwarski, parochial vicar; and Father Yojaneider Garcia, parochial vicar, minister to the Spanish-speaking community, and director of the diocesan Office of Catechesis and Faith Formation.

Bishop Emeritus Arthur J. Serratelli said he was “surprised and happy” to learn recently that Pope Francis had appointed him as a full member of the Holy See’s Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacra­ments Feb. 22. The Holy Father had previously appointed him to the Congregation from 2016 until he retired as the ordinary of the Paterson Diocese in 2020.

How do we know that Jesus actually died by crucifixion and three days later rose from the dead? We have faith in Christ as the Savior of the world but also can infer that the Resurrection actually took place from a preponderance of the evidence, drawn from proof both old and new, Christian J. Clark, a Harvard Law School graduate and faithful Catholic, last week asserted in a presentation.

Major superiors of religious orders serving the Paterson Diocese met with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney in Delbarton School at St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown April 26. The meeting was the first in-person meeting the Bishop has had with the major superiors. The previous meeting, which was held in November, the usual month for the gathering, was virtual. The Bishop offered this second meeting to be in person.

Last spring, Carol Bsarany began a prayer group. Seven people joined her to pray the rosary for the intentions of the nation and the world at the St. Thérèse Shrine in Boonton, a small stone structure that resembles a tiny country church located off the beaten path. Because the shrine is dedicated to St. Thérèse, the Little Flower, members of the group also prayed the Memorare and Novena Prayer to St. Thérèse.

On May 1, the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney blessed and dedicated the recently completed St. Joseph Pilgrim Chapel on the grounds of the Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling, calling it a “beautiful place of prayer.” Located next to the Shrine’s Upper Chapel, the Pilgrim Chapel now provides a focal point of devotion for prayer to Jesus through St. Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, and the contemplation of his role in salvation history.

During a “kneel down” in a football game, a quarterback takes the snap from the center and takes a knee with the sole purpose of running out the remaining time on the clock to ensure a victory for his team. However, for Joseph Kennedy, a former assistant football coach at Bremerton High School, near Seattle, “kneel down” had a very different meaning.

During the past two years, I would guess that the phrase “happy coincidence” has been used less frequently than in times before the pandemic. I was happy to realize that, in this year of 2022, there is a “happy coincidence” — that Mother’s Day, celebrated on the second Sunday of May, falls, in the Church’s “liturgical calendar,” on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. That means that on Sunday, May 8, we will celebrate both Mother’s Day and World Day of Prayer for Vocations. For almost 60 years, since 1963, the Church has marked the Fourth Sunday of Easter, often called “Good Shepherd Sunday,” as World Day of Prayer for Vocations.